Darkening of the Light
by DreamsOfTheNightingGale
Summary: Darkness is like a disease. It comes and holds onto us whenever we least expect it. What if Jack Frost gets infected by Pitch's Nightmare Sand and slowly turns into a cold shadow himself. The other guardians can only watch as a new threat arises, who used to be their ally and friend. Desperately they search for an answer to this cold darkness that's slowly closing in on them.
1. Prologue

**Hello everyone and welcome to my first FanFiction for the "Rise of the Guardians" Universe. It has been a while since I last saw the movie so there could be some mistakes or total gibberish in here so please let me know whatever you notice that's wrong!**

 **Also I haven't written any stories for a very long time, it could be that I'm a little rusty so please bear with me okay?**

 **Anyway I hope you'll like the prologue, even though it is only a prologue for now. And just to be clear, YES, this will be a Jack x OC story, but I absolutely hate cliché love stories where they fall hopelesly in love in a matter of minutes say I love you at their first meeting and where the girl gets crazy powerfull and the guy continuously describes his "girlfriend" (YES! Girlfriend) as beautifull and incredible and perfect and his only true love over and over and OVER AGAIN! *barfs***

 **Pfft okay enough speaking. I hope you're all gonna like this story so I'm just gonna stop talking now and start writing.**

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It was during the Dark Ages that the shadows had been at their strongest, when terror and fright had been roaming the streets looking for poor victims to scare the living daylight out of. Pitch Black, also known as the "Nightmare King" had been rampaging through city and country with the greatest of joy. Loving the scared expressions and the high-pitched screams he managed to tear from both child and grown-up.

People had been scurrying around the streets, not making eye contact with anyone and always minding their own business. Belief in better times were hard to find, and if there were any of such "nonesense", as Pitch would often call it, it wouldn't last long before it had been crushed without mercy in a matter of hours.

The Man in the Moon was watching with sadness as Pitch wrecked havock across the entire globe, breaking a child's joy and fantasy with everlasting fright. Slowly he had seen their wonder, their hopes and dreams wither and die. He had to do something before it would be too late. And thus he created Guardians to represent these dying traits and protect them in each and every child all around the world.

The Guardians had forced Evil to retreat from the world and hide in a dark kingdom underground. Where it plotted and grew till it was time to show its ugly face again and take revenge. When the time had been right, and his powers were at its peak once again he managed to break free from his underground realm and slowly started to plant his seeds of darkness and fear around the world, he left one under every bed and every craddle of every child. This had been step one, step two was warning, or more precisely, scaring the guardians with the knowledge of his return. Step three was easy enough, which was tainting the children's believe in them.

The Tooth Fairy suffered the loss of precious believe first, loosing all of her teeth and fairies. Sandy followed shortly after, defeated by the dark mutation of his own Dream Sand. Bunny they got at Easter, with every egg he crushed he dimmed a light on the globe. North was greatly affected by the loss of believe in his fellow guardians and grew weaker by the moment. Untill each and every one of them was slowly withering away at the sight.

His plan had been flawless, perfect even. He had never given it thought that the Spirit of Winter, who had no one to believe in him, would be the knife to shred his masterplan. It frustrated him to bits that a single teen, not to mention a very irresponsible one who did not take anything seriously in all of his time as an immortal, managed to ruin his plans when they were at the point of succeeding. His jagged teeth had been bared in frustration as he growled at his disappearing Nightmares who, one by one, turned back to gold when they were touched by couragious children.

After that, the guardians had been driving him in a cornor, attacking him while he defended himself with a scythe made of black sand. He was kicked in the stomache and driven a few steps backwards again, he looked up to find the four of them united in battle poses, angry looks on their faces. They were so done with his threat of fear and darkness.

"It's over Pitch," the Jack Frost said as he took a few steps closer, his light-blue eyes were cold and hard as ice as they locked with Pitch's. "There's no place to hide."

Pitch thought for a moment before an escape came to mind and he let out a dark and evil chuckle as he disappeared into the shadows. He pojected the long tail of his shadow on the wall, puzzling the guardians as they tried to figure out which one was real. Out of nowhere he silently rose again on the very same spot he disappeared on, he quietly yet swiftly raised his scythe again pointing it at the young Winter Spirit. He slashed.

"Jack look out!" Bunny shouted but was too late.

Jack turned around and only managed to step a little to the side as the black scythe came down. Instead of slashing right through Jack's head, as Pitch had originally planned, he only cut through the fabric of his hoodie at his shoulder and slightly cut at the flesh underneath.

"You alrigh' mate?" Bunny asked.

"It's nothing Kangaroo," Jack said with a teasing smile on his face. "Just a scratch! Now lets go get him!"

But before any of them could do as much as lay a finger on the Nightmare King, he was swept away by a thin but strong tail of golden dream sand that came from a big sparkling whirwind in the same golden color that seemed to radiate brightly. Pitch's eyes widened in shock as well as fear, something he had never felt before, as the Sandman was resurrected before his very eyes. It wiggled its little finger at Pitch like a parent telling off it's child and let him fly in the air by a flick of his whip.

The cold freezing air taunted him and chilled him to the core as he rose higher and higher at an unimaginable speed, crashing through clouds and sky untill he was thrown back to the surface where he painfully fell onto the black, asphalt streets and was lulled to sleep by Sandy which was, for the first time in forever, filled with joyfull dreams.

Though when he opened his eyes again it felt like he had just fallen alseep again but this time straight into a nightmare. His biggest fear had come true once again. All around him people and children were laughing and having fun, almost on purpose, like they knew nothing upsetted him more then people daring to laugh and enjoy themselves in his presence. He bared his teeth again and snarled viciously at them.

"How dare you?!" He spat every word. "To have fun, in MY presence? Don't you know who I am? I am the boogey..." He was stopped mid-sentence when that awefully cold feeling went through his entire body as a child ran straight through him, completely oblivious of his presence. Leaving him feeling ice-cold and empty, a feeling he both feared and detested.

Pitch started to run as reality slapped him merciless in the face, the children had stopped believing in him, they were no longer afraid of him and he was once again deprived of power. He was weak and they were strong, he had to get out, go back to his Nightmares and make it back to his realm where he could safely rage and plan his next attack, and grow strong once again.

He had made it to the lake of Burgress, which was only a few dozen steps away from the abandoned bedpost that covered the entrance to his shadowy kingdom, when he was stopped in his tracks again by the guardians who encircled and trapped him once again. His dark blood ran cold and started to pump violently through his body as his breath came out in desperate gasps of air.

"Give up already Pitch!" Jack said with a serious voice laced with warning. "It's over!"

Over. No it could not be over!

"If it's really over.." Pitch started slowly, regaining somewhat of his courage. His knees still slightly shaking and his fists continuously clenching and unclenching. "Then what are THEY doing here?"

He motioned to the Nightmares. Out in the snow and in the early rays of morning light, their black bodies seemed even more eerie and out of place then when they had done at night. Their nostrils were flaring as they sniffed almost hungrily at the air around them, a lead of fear had brought them here. But who did it belong to?

"Can't be me," North said with his thick, Russian accent. "I'm not scared!"

All the others started to nod in agreement and it took Pitch only a few moments to register the truth. His breath hitched painfully in his throat when Jack spoke again. His words stinging yet numbing like frostbite.

"Looks like it is your fear they smell!" He said in a tone that almost sounded satisfactory and joyfull. Like Pitch's fear was a lovely present wrapped in brightly colored wrappings and a ridiculous bow on top.

Pitch ran for his life. Followed by his Nightmares who caught him in a matter of seconds and flew off with him and dragged him intk the looming darkness of his own home, the bedpost being torn to pieces and sucked into the darkness as the hole was sealed shut. A dark glow came from the cracks before it disappeared, leaving smooth stone behind. Like there had never been anything before.

While the Guardians went to celebrate their victory, a young Winter Spirit hissed so quietly at a soft stinging pain in his shoulder, that it seemed to pass the attention of the Big Four next to him who were laughing and cheering like there was no tomorow.

Each and every one of them had failed to noticed that the last remnants of fear had manifested themselves in the flesh of Jack Frost and started to sink into the depths of his body where they would nestle themselves and would wait with patience untill it was time to grow.

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 **I hate it to copy write something from a movie. But this moment in the movie was the PERFECT place to alter it. I simply had to use it.**

 **Anyway hope you liked reading that cause there is more of that where that came from.**

 **I'd love to read your thoughts about this story and please don't hesitate to leave any mistake you found here in a review.**

 **Love you guys and hopefully see you soon with a next chapter!~**


	2. Chapter 1 - New Beginnings

**Hello everyone and welcome back to another chapter. I hope you enjoyed yourselves with the prologue, don't worry this chapter will be much longer and I'll introduce my OC to you. I'm not gonna spoil anything right now about it. (I'm not even revealing the gender though I think most of you can probably guess what it will be xD)**

 **Anyway a little thanks to GeminiLady21 for leaving her sweet and supportive review :3**

 **Enjoy chapter 1 everyone!**

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With Pitch Black gone, things could finally go back to normal and the guardians, including their newest member, regained power and health as the days went by and they re-won the hearts and the believe of millions of kids worldwide. Jack was happy to see them becoming stronger by the day, and smiled whenever he saw a child's eyes widen as the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus or even the Pooka appeared before them. And as much as he tried not to show it, it hurt him that only one out of... perhaps a couple thousand kids could see him too. Whereas North, Tooth, Sandy and even the Kangaroo got bombarded with brightly smiling kids, who were jumping up and down and who's eyes were filled with wonder at the mere sight of them. (Not to mention the occasional fainter every now and then.)

Nonetheless, Jack treasured each and every believer he gained and made mental notes to visit them as much as possible, making their day with a snow day or with a perfect ride on their sled. They laughed, had fun and played games till he had to leave again to visit somewhere else or whenever his guardian duties called him away. His days were filled with joy and laughter as he flew from place to place, made snow fall, lakes freeze over and made the wind taunt the streets of various cities. He had lots of time on his hands, a whole damn eternity to be exactly, yet there were times when he simply did not know what to do with it. It were those moments, which never failed to startle him, when the usual activities didn't seem to attract his attention like they normally did and thus forced him to try all kinds of new things.

He had tried making snowmen with toddlers, made teenage girls slide over the streets as he froze the underside of their crazy high heels, build ice-castles on a mountain-side with very little results for they usually turned into a huge block of ice. And then he had to figure out how to take it down again since it was certainly gonna attract unwanted attention and a scolding from North or another Guardian for abuse of magical power and the endangering of the environnement.

One day when he had been flying back to his hometown of Burgess, he felt pretty excited. He had been longing for months to go back to his place, to see Jamie and the others again, cause a little havock in the shopping district by freezing the doors shut and a few other things. He had tried to bring winter to Burgess sooner then usual but that had caused a little "talk" with the spirit of Autumn, who did not appreciate him forcing his winter onto the lands while they were right in the middle of the harvest season.

Now that Autumn was finally gone he released a most wonderfull winter over the entire country, a smooth and soft blanket of snow turned everything into a breathtaking Winter Wonder land. People could skate on ponds and lakes again, hot cocoa stands popped up everywhere, snowballs would fly around everywhere and beautiful snowangels and various snowmen decorated a lot of backyards and parks.

Jack followed a very specific track that was made by a sled, knowing it would lead him to Jamie's house. He saw the boy sitting on the stairs in front of his house, his hands deep in his pockets and his eyes focussed on something in the distance. Obviously his thoughts were very far away. A very seductive opportunity laid out here for Jack to pull a most wonderfull prank on the kid, so he took a big jump and his feather-light form ended up on the roof of the Bennett house, without making as much as a squeek or any other sound that would give away his pressence. A thick layer of snow covered the roof tiles and was almost begging Jack to shove it straight onto Jamie, who was still oblivious to the upcomming joke.

Jack snickered softly before, with the flick of his wrist, he shove the entire snow pile straight onto Jamie. The poor Jamie was covered in snow from head to toe and the only visible thing left of Jamie was the green cap he wore. The boy coughed and laughed as he wrestled himself out of the powdery cold pile of snow and when he spun around he saw Jack Frost laughing his butt off at the sight of him covered in the cold mass from head to toe. He made a snowball and flung it towards the laughing Winter Spirit who dodged it with grace.

"Very funny Jack!" Jamie said half laughing and half coughing, he rubbed the snow out of his brown hair and sneezed.

"Wow there little guy, you're not catching a cold are you?" Jack asked, his vocal tone sounding more teasing then worried.

"Pfft, you wish!" Jamie replied and laughed. He was always full of cheer and laughter. "But Jack, how long will you stay around this time?"

"Well.. I don't know, I'm sticking around for Christmas and New Year obviously," Jack summed as he came down from the roof and kneeled before Jamie. "Maybe long enough for Easter, you and I both know how much Bunny hates to hide his eggs in the cold and snow! So Jamie, how would you feel about an unexpected blizzard a bit before Easter?"

Jamie laughed at Jack's mischief. And Jack answered his laughter with a half smile of his own. He had missed talking to Jamie like this.

"Hey Jamie!" A female voice called. "Has Jack come back?!"

The two of them turned around and saw Pippa, a girl with reddish-brown hair, jog towards them. She was followed by the twins Claude and Caleb who waved and smiled at the sight of Jack. They ran excitedly towards them, happy to see an old friend again.

"Hey Jack how are you?"

"Jack, want to see our snowmen army? We made a whole bunch of them!"

The twins circled the Winter Spirit with happy excitement.

"Wow guys easy!" Jamie said and stepped between his friends, trying to get them to calm down a bit. "Why don't we go get Monty and Cupcake and then we can all go play! How about it Jack? Want to come with us?" Jamie focussed his attention on the Winter Spirit, just like the other kids, and they looked at him with big, expecting puppy eyes. He hated it when they pulled that trick on him, even though they knew perfectly well he'd come with them anyway. After all, he wouldn't want to miss their very first snow day of the season.

"Well..." He started, pretending like he considered declining their offer. "I don't know, there are a few other places I wanted to go to..." He scratched his chin. He peeked at the children from the cornor of his eye. Happy to see the signs of early disappointment written all over their faces. "But..." He started, and he watched their expressions light up again. His hands were behind his back as he turned to face the children. In his cold palms he formed a perfect snowball, firm and perfectly round covered with just a little ice to keep it together. "But if you guys insist... I guess it wouldn't hurt to... GOT YA!" He shouted and threw his snowball to Pippa all the way in the back. She caught it with her face and fell backwards on her but, her eyes covered with a mask of soft snow.

She looked surprised and speechless at first but soon a starting giggle threw both her and the others into a fit of jolly laughter.

A right out war started right then and there on that front porch, they threw snowballs at each other, sneaked up on each other for a good-hearted snowdip and let themselves fall in thick patches of snow. Their faces were cold, their noses red and their breaths came out raggid, forming clouds of warm vapor. But they weren't done playing at all, but with pretty much all the good snow gone they were forced to moved to another spot, one that would lead them to Monty's house, and after picking up the strange little blonde boy they went straight to Cupcake. Soon enough they were at the edge of the park of Burgess, diving straight into freshly fallen snow that had not been touched by anyone yet.

Cupcake started to bombard them with giant snowbals, they fell down like bombs and the other kids squeeled with laughter trying to run from the big girl who seemed to have the most fun of all. Jack flew around the battle field, making ammo for them every now and then and sometimes participating himself by launching his special surprise attacks before disappearing again into the trees. The kids loved it, and they couldn't get enough of it, and they surely would've continued untill deep in the night, had not their parents come to get them for dinner.

"Meet here again tomorow?"

"Yeah sure!"

"I'll bring my sled!"

"Then I'll bring mine too, maybe we can race on them!"

"Say tomorow at 10?"

"Deal!"

"Bye guys!"

With the promise of new adventures in the following morning they each went to their own house, holding onto their moms and dads as they eagerly told them about everything that had happened that day and overly-exagerated on their heroic moments and deeds in battle. Jack stared at them, and a bittersweet feeling of melancholy mixed with nostalgia washed over him. A vague memory of very long times ago washed over him, and he lost himself in the vision of him holding onto his dad's hand as he eagerly told him about the adventure of the day and the kids he had been playing with that day.

"Must be nice.." He thought and frowned only slightly.

"It was all Jack Frost's doing mom!" He heard Jamie say, a smile decorated his face and joyfull excitement laced his voice. "He made the best snow day ever!" Jamie's cheerfulness sparked a feeling of content in Jack and his upcomming mood was knocked down. His early gloomy thoughts were already forgotten, when he looked at Jamie he found the kid looking at him, an inviting smile on his face and it made the Winter Spirit feel all warm inside. He returned the smile and followed Jamie, Sophie and their mother to their home. Silently floating above them as he listened to their happy chatter, he watched them having dinner, enjoying a perfect winter meal with good meat, herbs and spices and fresh warm veggies with roast potatoes. He occasionally gave a sarcastic comment or a well deserved opposite minded opinion on certain matters, and with Jamie being the only one to both hear and understand him he gave the little kid a hard time containing his laughter.

The two of them joked around, talked and played a few little games untill it was way past Jamie's bedtime. The kid yawned, and started to crawl underneath the sheets of his bed, which started to look more and more inviting by the moment, but Jack wouldn't let him have it.

"Hey, you're not going to sleep already, are you?" He asked with an overexagerated surprised tone, one eyebrow raised and a grin on his pale face. He dropped down on the bed next to Jamie and spread his arms and legs like a starfish, while nearly pushing Jamie out of his own bed. "Huh, this is actually really comfortable, maybe I'll sleep over tonight.."

Jamie gave Jack a firm shove, yet failed to push him off.

"No way you're gonna sleep in my bed!" Jamie said slightly laughing, a playfully warning tone laced his voice. "You can either sleep on the floor or on the couch downstairs!"

"Is this how you show your gratitude to someone for making today the best snowday ever?" Jack said, eyes widened dramatically.

"Only if that person is trying to steal my bed!" Jamie replied. They chuckeld a little.

When they fell silent again they heard soft crying comming from the room next to Jamie's. Both their heads turned to the wall opposite of Jamie's bed, a questioning and worried look in their eyes. The sobbing sounds seemed to come from Sophie Bennett's room, Jamie's three-year-old sister.

"Do.. do you think we should go and check on her?" Jack asked, feeling slightly hesitant.

Jamie stayed silent for a few moments, thinking over his options for a moment.

"Nah.." He said eventually. "Mom'll hear her and take care of it, besides, if she sees me she'll ask me why I am still awake! And I can't exactly tell her that Jack freaking Frost has been keeping me up, now can I?"

"Hey!"

And indeed, Sophie's crying stopped after a couple of moments.

"See." Jamie said with a triumphant look on his face.

Jack's face remained in a deep frown, a puzzled look in his eyes, as if there was something he couldn't lay his finger on.

"Uh.. Jack?"

"Yeah.. sorry," Jack said and looked like he had just been snapped out of deep thoughts. "It's just... Well.. maybe I just missed it, but I didn't hear anybody climb up the stairs or.. open the door to her room."

"Yeah there's a reason for that." Jamie said and playfully rolled his eyes. "My house is not some kind of old, squeeking cabin you know? We can walk around without making haunted house-like noises!"

Jack still did not feel convinced, on the contrary, the longer the Winter Spirit wondered about it, the more suspicious he grew and it made him feel restless. First of all he wanted to know why the little girl had woken up crying, had she fallen out of bed? Or perhaps.. no, it couldn't have been a nightmare! No kid had been bothered by those for over 8 months! And what had suddenly made her stop crying?

"You know, if it really bothers you that much we can go check okay? But then it'll be your fault if I'm getting into trouble!" Jamie said while playfully ascusing the Winter Spirit. Jack smiled at Jamie and they got up from the bed and headed over to the door, when Jamie opened his bedroom door a quite loud squeek emited from the wooden frame and it made Jamie jump.

"No old, squeeky cabin right?" Jack said teasingly.

"Oh shush you!" Jamie replied in an urgent whisper, though a small embarassed smile spread on his little face. He poked his head out the door to peer across the corridor. It was dark and quiet, appart from the soft whispering comming from Sophie's room. A soft light was flickering downstairs and Jamie's curiosity led him to take a peek from the stairs. He went down a few steps, carefully skipping the one were the floarboard was rotten and looked throught he wooden bars straight into the living room.

The entire room was dark and the light he had seen from upstairs came from the television which was left on and was currently broadcasting some kind of lame reality-show, the strange and slightly eerie white-blue light that emmited from the tv screen only just lit up the sleeping figure of his mother on the couch. There was a half-full can of root-beer on the coffe-table and the remote had fallen from her hand onto the ground. Apparantly mrs. Bennett had planned to take some time for herself but had fallen asleep halway during her favorite soap-opera's.

"Huh.. mom's asleep on the couch.." Jamie whispered softly to Jack, who's eyes narrowed. "But.. if mom is here.. then.. who's upstairs with Sophie?"

Neither of them knew how fast to get their asses back up the stairs. They practically flew back up the stairs before they halted in front of Sophie's bedroom door. It was closed so they couldn't see what was happening inside, but they could hear the soft murmuring of people speaking to one another. Jack and Jamie felt unsure for a moment as to wether they should enter or not, it didn't sound like Sophie needed someone to check on her.

The two boys looked at one another, both looking for confirmation of the other to enter or to go back.

A high-pitched squeel came from Sophie's room.

They stormed in.

Jack smashed the door open and entered while shouting: "Leave her alone!"

When his icy-blue eyes met with bright yellow ones, he really did think he stood eye to eye with the boogieman for a few moments. But it wasn't untill he noticed the scared look in them and the warm honey-color in the irises that he noticed that the person he was looking at.. wasn't anything dark at all, let stand a man. On the contrary, he stood eye to eye with a girl!

He had only one more moment to look at her before she quickly fled through the window, clearly afraid and startled by his overly-dramatic entrance. The last thing he saw of her were the tips of her chocolate-brown curls and the hem of her dark-blue cape. Jack stood there, slightly flabbergasted and very puzzled.

"Who was she?" He wondered, a deep frown edged onto his features.

Jamie came running in, God knows why he waited so long to follow, and was about to bombard Jack with questions.

"Jack, what happened? Where's the intruder? How's Sophie? Who.." His questions were forgotten as his eyes got glued to the ceiling. "Wow.." He managed to bring out before his mouth fell open and his eyes widened.

Jack, who was curious as to why both Jamie and Sophie were so obsessed with the ceiling, felt his questioning gaze went up and soon he found it hard to look away, his gaze was absolutely stuck on the ceiling. If it was still there to begin with. His own mouth fell open and his breath slowly escaped from his body, he was absolutely stunned. Because, instead of looking at a concrete ceiling that was painted in a very pale pink color he found himself staring at the night sky in all of its glory.

Millions of little lights, like shimmering diamonds, stood out against a sheet of dark-blue and decorated the ceiling like stars at nighttime. And it was exact, the Big Dipper was there, the Polar star, even all of the zodiac constellations had manifested themselves somewhere in this painting.

"How.." Jack muttered softly.

"Who did this?" Jamie said, asking the very same question that had been on Jack's mind.

They both turned to Sophie was was squeeling and laughing and jumping on her bed.

"Sophie!" Jamie said in a serious tone and stepped over to his little sister. He sat down onto her bed and held her by her shoulders. "Soph, what happend, who did this?"

Sophie giggled excitedly before she answered.

"NightLight!" She cheered. Though with another gap of a switched tooth it sounded more like NighLie.

"NightLight?" Jack said out loud. He had never heard of that name before.

"NightLight! NightLight!" Sophie said and clapped in her little hands as she continued to jump up and down.

"Who's NightLight?"

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 **MY OC! TAM TAM TAAAAAM!**

 **FINALLY! This chapter is finally finished! In the end I tried to finish it quickly but it just went ON and ON and OOON!**

 **So. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!**

 **And my appologies if you're still dissatisfied with the lack of information of my oc besides her name and part of her looks.**

 **Also, for those who noticed, the first signs of Jack turning evil and unlike his usual self are ALL OVER this chapter, lets see who can find them all! :D**

 **See you all next time!~**


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